Do grades / scores reflect your true ability?

We have been seeing assessments and re-assessments a lot in various IT companies these days; including our own! Though I highly respect those who score high and work towards good scores myself, I can’t but wonder if scores / grades truly reflect one’s full potential in profession or life! I’m not saying it’s a ‘must have’ and I’m not saying it’s a ‘nice to have’; my point is that it’s just one of those common minimum requirement (CMR) thingies and should be treated as just that!For instance grades do not reflect one’s ability in taking initiative and leadership skills,. They don’t speak of writing, listening and communication abilities. Do grades reflect temperament, attitude, persistence, consistence, clarity, patience?Do better grades make you a good listener and an approachable person? I mean do your high grades help in your team members not hesitating in expressing themselves freely to you?I’m not saying don’t study or score high. A good education helps gain self confidence, social, cultural and academic skills, inter-cultural perspectives, network of ignited minds, intellectual stimulation and loads of friends. High scores definitely speaks high of your depth of knowledge in one theoritical area but not the breadth of knowledge you’ve assimilated outside.As far as academic abilities alone go, yes the grades reflect them; but they are not a complete dashboard to look into your true abilities, potential or attitude and least of all an accurate measure to gauge your worthiness to perform a function.

I feel that grades do not actually reveal the true identity or capability of any student or individual. Grades are a way of testing the knowledge but not a complete and correct way of deciding the capability of the students.Sometimes it so happens that some students are capable of memorizing the whole syllabus and score high marks, but when asked to explain the concept they fail to explain the concept that they have studied; and students who fail to memorize the answers fail to score high marks but when asked to explain the concept they are capable of explaining.There is a vast difference between people/students who understand concepts and those who memorize the concepts.Sometimes it also happens that students who have high grades in their hand fail to build their future but those with average grades perform better in their life.The capability of an individual should not be decided only on the basis of grades.This is what i feel.

Not exactly, we study and work a lot on theory to achieve high score which is not the case in practical world. Our knowledge and struggle is very different. In corporate world you need to know handling juniors and seniors along with skills to execute your work.

Scores and Grades definitely give chance to get in to good position and good company after that everything depends on your performance.

I agree with you. Marks and grades help the individual to get the job as company's criteria include the minumum cut of percentage for the freshers to join , but later, marks hardly play any role.When we switch jobs the earlier experience counts in.Later when one gets the job hardwork and smart work plays the major role on professional front.

I too have the same opinion like the guys above me. Grades and marks do not reflect our true ability. Our exams are like the ODI games. We know that all the players have the ability and the potential, but not all the players perform well in a given day. Does this mean that the players who do not perform do not have the ability? No.

The situation have an impact on us. The results we get are based on the situation under which we perform and also to certain extent, our "luck" at that time. Consider 2 people preparing for a certain exam. If each prepares 70% of what is required (both different). So, we can say that both have prepared equally. But the paper is in such a way that all the questions are from the portions where 1 guy prepared, naturally he gets more marks than the other guy. Luck plays its part here.

But how can people be evaluated? Exams are the only option that is feasible. How much ever we say that exams are not the right way to judge out ability, they are the only evaluation method we have at the moment.

So, its up to us to understand that and perform in exams and improve our results and grades.________________________________________________________

I think there is no connection with grades and ability.I have many of My Friends who had very good grades and now they have lost in the struggle of life. On the other hand the friends who could not do well in exams n did not have good grades are learning while working and doing well in Life.

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